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Mastodon thinks Lemmy’s privacy stinks. What say you? (raddle.me)

submitted 1 year ago by elbowmacaroni@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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Federated services have always had privacy issues but I expected Lemmy would have the fewest, but it's visibly worse for privacy than even Reddit.

Deleted comments remain on the server but hidden to non-admins, the username remains visible

Deleted account usernames remain visible too

Anything remains visible on federated servers!

When you delete your account, media does not get deleted on any server

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[-] Prunebutt@feddit.de 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I find all the "privacy isn't possible on the clearnet, lol" Commets quite troubling. Yes, the internet doesn't forget and we should always behave on the internet as if our moms could read it.

But that kind of "privacy realism" fosters an additude that doesn't care about privacy at all; no matter how it could be improved (even if it's never perfect). Just because anyone on the street can follow me home and therefore can find my home address, I'm not carrying a sign with my address when going to a protest.

According to this comment, privacy is worse than with mastodon. And while data always can be scraped, it still isn't too much to ask to properly federate deletions.

Yes, the internet is a public place and reddit is bad and you might not like raddle, but come on, people. Have you all given up on improving things already? And do only tech-savvy people with the knowledge and resources to run their own servers have a right to privacy on the internet?

[-] The_Terrible_Humbaba@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

I think you are conflicting some things.

The analogy you used doesn't quite work, because you are not telling everyone at the protest where you live. A more accurate analogy might be you going to a protest, loudly saying something which you later regret, and then ask everyone to just forget about it and delete any footage you might be on. Some might comply, but many won't, and you won't have any idea who didn't.

Furthermore, "people with the knowledge and resources to run their own servers" would be no more safe than you are, because other servers (instances) will still record whatever they post out there. If I make my own federated server and send out a comment, other instances that federate with mine will receive a copy of it. At that point I can ask them to delete it; however, even if they do comply, there is no guarantee that another user hasn't made a local backup of the comment or just screenshotted it.

At the end of the day, tech isn't magic. Everything has limitations, and you can't do everything at once. You can't have a system that allows you to make public comments that go out to several servers where it is shown to thousands or millions of people, and at the same time expect to be able to delete all of it when you feel like it. Tech can't do everything, and at some point we need to take agency and accept responsibly for what we put out there.

Finally, I'll add on what another user said:

Opposite to Instagram or Facebook, on Lemmy or Mastodon you can create an anonymous account. Yes it will be logged (normal public internet), but you won’t be treacable. The UI doesn’t have any tracking scripts, and many instances don’t require an email even to sign up. Use the Tor browser to spoof your IP.